-landscaping, other works still to be done
The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport says the $455 million 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool will not be commissioned in time for the swim meet of the Schools’ National Track and Field, Swimming and Cycling Championships set for November 9-17.
In a press release the ministry said that while the pool “has been completed and is now fully functional” the contractor has not yet formally handed over the facility to the ministry. It added that “some landscaping and other aesthetic works are still to be completed.” The ministry also said it regrets that the pool cannot be used for the Championships as it had promised a few months ago as “only the best facilities should be made available to the nation’s young swimmers and that deadline cannot now be met.” Further, it said, an announcement will be made for the official opening of the pool.
On a visit to the site earlier this week, Stabroek Sport observed that while some progress has been made and water was in the pool, only the pump house is functional. A tour inside the changing rooms revealed a few shower stalls and the prospective parking lot is a field of weeds.
On Tuesday, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education Pulandar Kandhi and Head of the Physical Education Department Nicholas Fraser said alternative arrangements had already been put in place to host the swimming segment at the Castellani House Swimming Pool.
Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony had recently given assurances that the pool would be finished in time for the championships after an earlier “mid-September” deadline he had indicated as being “a safe timeline for when we can be ready to open the facility” had fallen through. In a previous press release the ministry had said the stated deadline was revised due to “technical discussions relating to the backfilling around the pool.”
The release went on to state that “once these technical and engineering details are sorted out a new date for the handing over of the facility will be set and also a subsequent date for its opening set.” Anthony had declared, according to a report aired on the state-owned National Communications Network, that the pool would be completed in time for the schools’ championships.
Works started on the 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool in January 2008. Since then there have been a few modifications to the design, a huge increase in the construction cost and numerous missed deadlines.
Following the start of construction in January, in February 2008 Anthony had promised that the facility would be ready before the end of the year, however; construction came to a halt in November the same year.
Then, in July 2009, in another section of the media the minister reportedly promised that the pool would be completed by the “first quarter” of this year.
In January, Anthony also reportedly said that the facility would have been commissioned in June; he subsequently hosted a tour of the facility in June and announced that works would have been completed in three months time. Then during another tour in July, he announced a September finish.
An initial contract for the pool, worth $316.396 million, was awarded to Kares Engineering Inc to do works including the construction of the swimming pool, the mound, the administrative building, the pump house, fencing and landscaping of the site among other works. However, after a comprehensive technical review it was recommended that Kares Engineering Inc confine itself to specified works on the site, while international pool contractors Myrtha Pools, USA was solicited to provide a prefabricated pool solution.
In another section of the media in 2009, Anthony had said that originally the pool’s “specifications were done to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standards”, as it is now being built to FINA (International Swimming Federation) standards. This hiked the cost to $455 million which, according to the press statement, is “still within the range of the Engineer’s estimate of 425,127 M (+20%).”
